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A new documentary seeks to unravel the mystery of why billions of honey bees have been disappearing from hives across the United States, and concludes that the chief suspect is pesticides.

There's a ragged strength to Lorrie Moore's uncompromising prose, says Alex ClarkA Gate at the Stairsby Lorrie Moore 322pp, Faber, £16.99'And what if,' wonders 20-year-old Tassie Keltjin, taking her first plane journey, 'oxygen deprivation in the cabin caused one to think in idle spirals and desperate verbal coils like this for the rest of one's life?' This anxiety - experienced as mild unease, casually expressed - underpins much of Lorrie Moore's scintillating and horrifying new novel, which veers between an appalled recognition of our hopelessness in the face of slowly unfolding events and a quietly amused understanding of our determination to translate our incompetence into a language that can help us bear them.Tassie has come to the midwestern university town of Troy from the even more insular town of Dellacrosse, primed for rapture 'like the priest-child of a Colombian tribe I'd read about in Cultural Anthropology' but left with the bathetic sense that her childhood had produced '

A new biography of Johnson brings a fresh perspective to the story. By Kathryn HughesSamuel Johnson by David Nokes 448pp, Faber, £25Sooner or later, any modern-day biographer of Samuel Johnson has to decide whether he is going to side with Johnson himself or with the great man's nemesis, James Boswell. If he opts for Boswell then we will get the familiar Johnson, an odd assemblage of convulsive tics, roaring voice and bar-room philosophising. If, instead, the biographer sees Boswell as a sneaky parasite, staging scenes in order to manufacture good copy for his monumental Life, then the Johnson who is likely to emerge will be altogether more subtle, less shouty, a soul in distress and a man in the round.David Nokes goes for the second choice while not, of course, falling into the adjacent trap of seeing Boswell as a mere buffoon (this story has been told so many times that there are several well-worn grooves along which it could run like clockwork). Most importantly, he goes back to bot

If the Comcast-NBC deal happens, expect to hear a lot more about Steve Burke.

The two men running Michael Jackson's estate gained new powers and an extension of their authority until the end of the year in a court hearing Friday.

Legit News: Alan Bennett play to open in London Nov. 17 -- A Tony winner for his role in Alan Bennett's 'The History Boys,' Richard Griffiths has stepped into the writer's new play 'The Habit of Art' at London's National Theater, following Michael Gambon's departure from the production due to health issues.

NEW YORK - CBS said this morning that an employee had been charged with attempted grand larceny in an investigation involving "Late Show" host David Letterman, who told his TV audience last night that he had sexual relationships with female employees and that someone had tried to extort $2 million from him over the affairs.

. Shadow culture secretary talks of difficult decisions. BBC should 'cut its cloth' in response to new climateTourists visiting the ancient city of Lijiang in south-west China were greeted by an incongruous sight this summer. In the shadow of the Jade Dragon mountain, an old Carthusian could be seen marching through the streets alongside a traditional sedan chair carrying a Chinese woman. Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, was marrying his Chinese partner Lucia in a pre-revolutionary ceremony.'We went back to what a wedding would have been like pre-1949 - that involved us going through the streets with a sedan chair carried by my family,' Hunt says, recalling how he had to undergo a series of tests before his family could carry away his bride.These included singing, performing 25 press-ups and finding his bride's shoes.'I had to do three kowtows to the sun,' Hunt says. 'OK, there were three kowtows to the Guardian as well,' he says for balance.An affable figure, who embodies t

ET's Mary Hart goes one-on-one with Jon Gosselin in an exclusive new interview full of tough questions about Jon's marriage, children and his motives behind forcing a shutdown in production of "Jon & Kate Plus 8"! "I'm doing this to protect my kids because my kids have asked sometimes that they don't want to be filmed," Jon tells Mary. "My kids need to come off the show." His estranged wife Kate, in her own statement to ET, says her main priority is the children's well-being. But Jon begs to differ.

Take a look at the latest trailer from Martin Scorcese's new film.